Method of printing bags.



A. M. BATES.

METHOD OF PRINTING BAGS.

APPLICATION FILED FEB.20,1907.

918, 497, Patented Apr.20, 1909.

JOHN

DOE

AND GO.

WES

' UNITED ADELMER M. BATES, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO.

METHOD OF PRINTING BAGS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented April 20, 1909.

Application filed February 20, 1907. Serial No. 358,484.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Annminn M. BATES, a

citizen of the. United States, residing at Cleveland, in the county of Cuyahoga and State of Ohio, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in the Method of Printing Bags, of which the following is a specification. My invention relates to the process of producing bags printed on one or both sides with the special marking of the user. Much difiiculty and expense has heretofore resulted from the effort to print such bags and since many millions are used every month for sugar, flour and other articles of commerce, the diliiculty becomes serious.

My process is'applicable to the printing of either paper or cloth bags, though perhaps more especially useful in connection with the latter.

In the ordinary printing of bags it has been customary, and this experience has shown to the best practice, to print the blanks for the purpose of filling the orders of a given customer when the order is received in the bag factory. If the manufacturer prints simply the exact number of blanks for the number of bags ordered, then, of course, he' will never have in stock a supply for that particular customer whose mark, of course, differs from those of all others. If, on the other hand, the manufac turcr prints more than the necessary number of blanks he will be carrying in stock a lot of specially marked goods which are only serviceable for the purposes of the customer in question. A large bag business, therefore, ordinarily involves the carrying in stock of a large number of bags of different marks and sizes by the bag manufacturer, or a great delay in filling the orders of the ordinary user of bags. Of course, when the blank is printed it must be run through the factory and as a special order, involving more expense than would otherwise be the case. To obviate these diiilcultics of delay the user must order more bags than he needs and he is subjected to the risk of loss by fipding himself with a stock of bags some of which for one reason or another are never used.

The printing of the blanks involves ordinarily the use of cylinder presses with high price labor and even then, as a casual inspection of the printed bags on the market shows, the work is defective. If the bags are printed after they are completed the results are still more unsatisfactory. M rocess is intended to obviate all of these i culties and to put the bag manufacturer in a position where he can quickly supply his customers without carrying in stock and at less expense than heretofore, or to put the bag user in a position where he can have his blank bags at the lowest market price and print them himself with a small expenditure for plant and but. little expense. Instead of dealing with the bag blank I deal with the complete, though preferably unturned bag.

Bags are completed from the bag blanks and are then turned to put the edges inside and give a smooth appearing bag. This process of turning is commonly performed by drawing the bag down over arms adapted for that purpose, and this after the manufacture of the bag is the first step in my process. lVhen the bag is so positioned on the turning device, whatever it may be, I stretch it preferably by engagement with its inner walls. This may be done in various ways but by forcing the members of the turning device away from each other they stretch the bag between them. The bag in its stretched condition is now brought into relation to the printing press and printed. If the bag is to be printed on both sides it should be supported from within and this can be best done by making one member of the turning and stretching device in the shape of an extended flat plate or platen, and then the bag so stretched and inwardly supported can be fed between 'two printing surfaces. The bag is then removed from the press and released. Another ad vantage of this process is that the necessary step of turning the bags becomes the first step in my process so that cheap labor which turns the bag is si'ibstitutcd for the high priced labor usually employed to feed the cylinder press. By my process, when the bag is so supported it is constantly and easily fed to any kind of a cheap press for, being held firmly and carefully stretched, it is only necessary to have some registering device to bring it into proper relation to the press. All these operations can be easily accomplished in "apid rotation by automatic machinery or by the hand aidcdby simple devices.

I have diagrammatically illustrated my process in the drawings, wherein- Figure 1 is a bag blank; Fig. 2, a bag finished but \mturned; Fig. 3, a bag turned operative and on the turning device; Fig. 4, a bag stretched by engagement with its walls within; Fig. 5, a bag stretched and inwardly supported by the use of an inner platen; Fig. 6, the bag and support in the I rinting press; and Fig. 7, the completed I iike parts are indicated by the same numerals in all the figures.

1 is the bagblank unprinted.

2 is the bag finished but unturned.

3 is the bag turned.

4: is a support to which is pivotally attached the finger 5 and the finger 6. v 7, 7 are loops in the ends of these fingers whereby they may be easily grasped. 8 is a spiral spring which draws them together. 9, 9 are stops on the support to limit their movement.

10 is a modified form of finger developed so as to appear as a flat plate or platen.

11 is the base of the printing press and 12 is a surface thereon whichmay be aprinting surface. I 13 is an outer movable part of the press which may, if the bag is to be printed on both sides, have a printing surface at 14:.

It will be understood that all the parts are shown diagrammatically and that they are in a sense fragmentary, it being thought 2 printed bag, which consists in making an E unturned but otherwise finished bag, then turnlng the same on a turning-device, then supportingthe same and stretching it from Within so that its two sides lie in extended fiat planes by means of the same device upon which it is turned, then printing its exterior surface, then releasing it.

2.. The process of producing a finished printed bag, which consists in making an unturned but otherwise finished bag, then turning the same on a turning device, then supporting the same and stretching it from within by means of the same device upon which it is turned, then supporting anextended flat surface of said bag from within,

then printing both surfaces, and then re-.

leasing it. I

ADELMER M. BATES. Witnesses:

CHAS. B. BRUNNER,

JOHN BRUNNER. 

